Laughin’ at the Oldies

The group over at RiffTrax have been doing a great job of carrying on the legacy of Mystery Science 3000. When the show ended its original run some of the writers left and created RiffTrax, what they lost in the robot sidekicks, I think they gained by making everything feel more streamlined. If you have no idea about either of these two properties, you are forgiven. The quick synopsis is that RiffTrax takes an old movie (particularly the really bad ones) and they make fun of it. “Riffing” over an awful line or just saying something completely funny that fits the scene; is what they are all about. The guys have done over 400 movies, some live shows and even sell the Trax that can be synced up and played over the phone while you watch the flick at your home; basically, these guys are legit.

MSRP: $9.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $9.99

I went into this game as a fan of RiffTrax as a whole, my friends and I regularly will ‘riff’ bad movies when we all watch them together. As a fan I had really high expectations for RiffTrax: The Game, which itself is a party style game; meaning there is no single player experience at all. That’s really both a blessing and a curse as I discovered; the blessing was that this allowed me to have some of my friends over whom I hadn’t seen in a while due to the pandemic. The curse however was my first attempt in trying to play forced me into well, forcing my kids to play with me; it was a considerably less enjoyable experience.

So, there are two ways to enjoy RiffTrax: The Game, well really only ONE way to truly enjoy the game, but they do offer two ways to play. The least enjoyable way is also probably the easiest and that is the “Pick a Riff” mode. Similar to the set up for the old Scene it games (God, does anyone else really miss those?) where players will be shown a clip from a film. After which they are given 8 various jokes to select for the clip. The real problem here is that typically none of the jokes have ANYTHING to do with the clip that’s on screen. This could be a plus if one is playing and wanting to be absolutely absurd but in comparison to the superior game mode; unfortunately, these jokes just don’t land.

The aforementioned superior game mode that I absolutely had a last playing with my friends is the “Write a Riff” mode; which we all figured was tailor made just for us honestly. The set-up is much like before, players will be shown a clip of a film and after a few lines of dialog instead of picking from some randomness, they will be prompted to of course write their own riffs. Luckily the timer can be customized if you have some friends who are not as quick with jokes as others. (I am that person in my group) But after all of the jokes have been submitted the game will replay the clip but use an AI voice to read each person’s submission. This led to some unintentional laughs by the group just because the bot has no sense of comedic timing, which worked in its favor sometimes. The group gets to vote on the best “riff” at the end of each round and scores are tallied. As gameplay progresses players can earn more points in the later rounds which can help to snatch victory away from a friend.

While my friends and I loved playing RiffTrax: The Game; I don’t think its going to appeal to the masses like the movie clip, trivia game Scene it once did. (Please bring Scene It back) The lack of a real single player mode is going to hurt the appeal to some people out the gate, but then also this is a very niche game. Unless you are the type of person or surround yourself with the type of people who are quick witted when something ridiculous happens or just enjoys making fun of bad movies in a group; there won’t be much here that players will find interesting. But for those that fit the bill, and are fans of RiffTrax; you will have a ball, all for the low price of $9.99.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.